Tag: gansters

Avilio could have joined the Orcos and helped them take down the Vanettis, fulfilling his duty as a member of the family while satisfying his thirst for revenge. But he didn’t, and the answer why is clear: it’s easier to accomplish what hell-bent on doing by joining up with the Vanettis. He can earn their trust with his competence, with Colteo’s skill providing cover.

He arrives at a Godfather-like wedding, with a groom who’s the nephew of the Chicago-based Galassias, who are more powerful than either of the families in Lawless. Because of that, they can pressure the two to make nice, something that doesn’t sit right with Vanno Clemente.

Not only that, he has to watch his pal Nero’s sister Fio be snatched up by the Chi-town clown. So when Avilio makes a flippant remark to the groom and dodges his punch, Vanno takes a shine to him. When Nero gives the okay to take out Fango, Vanno turns to Avilio—just as Avilio planned.

Interestingly (for me anyway), the show doesn’t simply hand victory to Avilio. Despite a nice bit of disguise and stealth, Fango is a motherfuckin’ survivor (not to mention a masochist), and doesn’t go down easily. I imagine even if Avilio had gotten a bullet or two in him, it wouldn’t be enough to stop Fango from parkouring into the night.

But someone wanting to off a jerk like Fango probably isn’t such a surprise to his employers (he is a mercenary, after all), and Avilio claims he hasn’t killed before, so Vanno isn’t that upset by the failure; hell, he half-expected it. He knew you need more luck than Fango to kill Fango.

What Avilio does get him, by dumb luck, is Serpente, the somewhat sadistic dude who killed his young car-loving pal earlier in the episode. At this point, Avilio has Vanno eating out of his hands, meeting him in a place and time where no one will see or hear them, so that Vanno can get his revenge.

What surprised me was that Avilio acted so fast. We’re only on Day frikkin’ two, and here he is, already taking a shot at one of the three main guys on his list, which he shares with an increasingly worried Colteo. The only problem is…he seems to have messed up again, and all the trust he earned may have been wasted. That’s typically the assessment when you’ve got the barrel of a gun in your back!

But judging from Avilio’s look, he’s not going to let things end here. I was expecting him to be friends with Vanno and Nero longer than he was. But I’m not disappointed the show didn’t go in the direction I assumed.

Seven years after his family is killed in a mob power struggle, Avilio returns to the town of Lawless, reuniting with his friend Colteo to sell his quality moonshine to discriminating customers on the “Island.”

They end up facing the Orco family’s new attack dog Fango, but manage to escape with their would-be-buyer, who turns out to be Nero Vanetti, the son of the man who killed Avilio’s family.

91 Days wastes no time establishing Avilo’s backstory and resultant vendetta, and the title leaves no doubt as to how long he’ll have to get his vengeance.

What might be lacking in complexity or surprise in the story is made up for by 91 Days’ rich, detailed, earthy prohibition-era setting. There’s a pall of melancholy and fallen grace everywhere, no more overt than a church on an island converted to a bar.

Unlike GANGSTA, this is a show that sticks to realism; no magical super-beings here, just good old-fashioned blood, brawn, sweat, and smoke. The weapons are bats, bullets, but exclusively knives in the case of Avilio, who has clearly been honing his mind and body for this quest for revenge thes last seven years.

Even a wild dog like Fango doesn’t faze Avilio when the guy interrupts his negotiations. In fact, he uses it as an opportunity to show his worth to some people who seem important, and turn out to be the very people he wants to get close to.

Avilio is a man with nothing to lose, since he already lost it all, so he’s no someone you want to bet against. That being said, there isn’t much else to his character, at least not yet in this first episode. His childhood pal Colteo welcomes him back in his life, but I wonder how long he’ll last, as he’s not as hard or strong as Avilio has become.

Where the originality comes into play is Colteo’s mad distillery science, and the decisive blow to Fango is a chemical reaction that harkens to seven years ago, the night Avilio’s fam was murdered, when then-Angelo put out a candle with his finger, showing it was the paraffin burning.

Colteo hoped to make money off his quality hooch so he could go to school, but now that he’s swept up in Avilio’s plans, that’s probably not going to happen.

For all the looming stone buildings and iron bridges in Lawless, There’s a distinct sense of impermanence to 91 Days. Avilio probably doesn’t want to be on this earth any longer than he needs to take care of business, and he probably won’t be. I’m looking forward to seeing how he uses his 91 days.